Why Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Ben-Hur & Other Hollywood Classics Still Look So Good | Open Culture
Cleopatra (1963) is argued here to be a case where the notorious expense looks justified in hindsight: its $44 million budget (about $480 million in current dollars) produced physical spectacle, from the giant sphinx and full-scale Alexandria harbor to Elizabeth Taylor's roughly 65 costumes, that still reads as convincing on screen. The piece draws a line through Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia to argue that the 65mm and ultra-wide formats forced real craft rather than shortcuts. It then closes by extending the point to RoboCop, Dick Tracy, and The Fifth Element, asking whether even a trillion dollars could buy the same tangible results today.
★★ · rewatch · watched 24 Jan 2021
The Aristocats was the final movie that Walt Disney greenlit prior to his passing. It has the same problem as most of the animated Disney movies from this era, it lacked a great story and memorable characters. Like many of the Disney movies of the time, it also lacked a bit of cultural sensitivity that makes it a bit of a tough watch 50 years later. While it isn’t Song of the South bad, it does have some moments that don’t play well today.
The movie clocks in at 1:18 minutes according to IMDB, and I have to say I felt every minute of this movie. The animation was OK, and there were a couple of scenes that were better than others but overall, it was generally bland. I do appreciate the Parisian styles of the backgrounds, and those did add to the mood. “Everyone Wants to Be a Cat” was the catchy song from the movie which is replaying through my brain as I write.
I wish there was more to this movie. I probably watched it in my youth, but I honestly don’t remember anything about it. I remember many cartoons from that time, but not a single scene from this watch was familiar. My guess is if I watched it again in a year from now, I’d wouldn’t remember much more than the train scene. It was lazy animation, lazy writing, and lazy performances.
There was a moment on the train tracks where the animation made the sparks from the train to look like blood. It was a little bit disturbing when taken out of context, but I thought to myself, “at least this is getting interesting”.
Obviously, there are some less than sensitive moments in the movie. That said, it seemed like they went out of the way to get a dig in for every culture. They represented most in the “Everyone Wants to be a Cat” montage, but a couple of scenes later there was a “WigWam” reference out of the blue. What was that about?
It was pointed out from the person I watched with that the mouse from this movie looks exactly like the mouse in “The Rescuers”. I know it isn’t a sequel, but Disney really didn’t put forth much of an effort to be creative for a while. I have the greatest respect for the work it takes for a release, but… oof.
Your review on Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/1CdbbZ